Triathlon - r bend vs s bend / straight vs bend aerobars

i'm looking at the vision tech carbon bar combos to replace my very heavy and overly adjustable profile aerolites and am wondering on the difference between the straight (r bend) and angled-up (s bend) bars. are the r bends faster but harder on the wrists? any advice welcme.

Vision tech calls it R-bend (Racing bend) whereas HED calls it S-bend, but it's the same thing.

Standard bend is available in single bend or double bend. Straight is just as what you would think, nothing but a straight tube....

Check out the explaination here:
http://www.all3sports.com/product_info.php?pName=oval-carbon-extensions&jsenabled=1&osCsid=e824a98def6b56a727202e31e81b7ba0

i'm looking at the vision tech carbon bar combos to replace my very heavy and overly adjustable profile aerolites and am wondering on the difference between the straight (r bend) and angled-up (s bend) bars. are the r bends faster but harder on the wrists? any advice welcme.



I switched from "single bend" to "S bend" this year for time trials in an effort to get slightly more aero. Whether or not I accomplished that is up for debate.

The first thing I noticed is a sharp increase in wrist pain from having my hands curved down. Took maybe 3 weeks of hour long rides to get used to them, but now that I have, I no longer have pain.

Plus, IMO they look cooler.

I think that it really comes down to the distances that you will be covering. For the longer distances, I recommend working with something that's more comfortable. There's nothing worse that doing a 100 ride in an uncomfortable position. For shorter distances, you could put up with some discomforts to become more aero. Question is: what's your level of tolerance for such pains? The "S" bend looks cooler (agreed). Just make sure that "cooler" doesn't hinder your performance. Hope that helps.